A
couple of things ….
First, I wanted to say thank you to those of you who have already posted responses, who sent “RSVPs” to my invitation so quickly. It meant a lot to me that you did.
Second, I actually don’t know, I mean I forget whether I watched this
hour-plus-long conversation between author, Tracy Kidder and his subject, Paul Farmer, before I read the book,
Mountains Beyond Mountains, or very soon after. But either way, what I do know is that the chance to see their sweet camaraderie in action, to get to experience the wit, the great intelligence, the easygoing naturalness and depth of caring, actually, in both of them enhanced the feeling I had of the story, of Farmer’s life being this tremendous gift, well, for me it enhanced it many times over.
If you want to take a chance with it, now, even if you haven’t yet read the book, I’d encourage you to watch at least the first 14 minutes before deciding whether it’s worth your time or not. By the end of that 14 minutes, you’ll know whether this is your cup of tea or whether it isn’t.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/includes/templates/library/flash_popup.php?pID=178248-1&clipStart=&clipStop=Last thing for now-- some of you might have noticed that I didn’t put any ceiling, any limit on the number of KivaFriends who could read/reread and post, and for each of whose efforts, I said I would tack on an additional $25 to my ultimate First Day of Spring contribution to
Partners in Health. I did think about doing that. But…..
On the one hand, I felt pretty “safe,” sort of like the majority of people stopping off at KivaFriends in the next couple of months probably were
not going to drop everything to go pick up that book, read it, and post about it to take advantage of my offer. On the other hand, it occurred to me that I actually want to invite you all to go for it. Do go ahead and try to break my bank; I would love it.
I really would love it if dozens and dozens (
if hundreds!) of you took me up on it, if you read the book, posted about it, and got yourselves and other people excited about it, about the book and about wanting to continue showing solidarity for the Haitian people, even after the media blitz is over. I really would. Truth is, I need to lose some weight, anyway, so if I had to go without eating for a meal or two or even for six hundred to be able to make good on my word to you, that would be all right, too!
Sign me,
Regretfully committing but yet another 7/3***,
Jill
*** You'll need to watch the first part of the video at the link, above, to be able to crack the code!
